Elfen Lied: Red Shift
by ChronicGamer
Summary: Crossover: Elfen Lied / Half Life: Blue Shift full summary inside.
1. Prologue

**Elfen Lied: Red Shift**

Summary: Half Life: Blue Shift showed us an alternate view on the story of Half Life from the perspective of Barney Coulhan. Now meet Jason Mitchell, a security guard in charge of protecting a strange, unknown specimen in a science lab where his warnings are "Don't get within two meters of it or you're dead."

Author's notes: It's my first crossover so go easy on the reviews. This time it's a cross between Elfen Lied and Half Life: Blue Shift with some minor reference to the original Half Life, EndWar, Haze, and a few other series.

Jason "Downtown" Mitchell is an OC of mine that I developed way before I joined FanFiction. I might make a character bio chapter later on if some of my OCs' background story confuses you. In short, he's a 19 year old elite soldier that started in the army at age 15 and got promoted REAL FAST (okay maybe it's not that cheesy but that's what it is in a nutshell) You may also notice that I didn't mention anything at all about what the characters are wearing or what they look like. Two reasons behind that: 1) All characters that are not mine you can search up the series where they are from and get the idea of what they look like. 2) I've changed the costume of my OC for two years and I am still undecided on what to make them look like. Feel free to give some suggestions on what they should look like in a review.

Jason and Pete are the only OCs in this fanfic. All other characters (or maybe most. I might make more as I write) are properties of their original creator. Sgt. Morgan Duvall, and Sgt. Shane Carpenter for example (there are too many for me to name them all right now), are properties of Ubisoft from their game Haze.

This story is written from the perspective of Jason, my OC, although there are areas in the story that will change into a thirdperson perspective of other characters. The prologue, I admit, is long and boring but it's mostly story so think of it as the calm before a storm. Trust me. Things pick up a lot in chapter 1.

Please be nice in the reviews. Don't expect anything amazing from my writing as I'm getting a low A in grade 9 English and I only write as a hobby in my spare time. My writing style was inspired by that of Tom Clancy novels.

Warning: This fanfic contains severe violence and language.

**Prologue: Black Mesa**

"How the fuck did I end up with this job?" I asked myself as I got off of the transport helicopter. I approached the front entrance of the gigantic laboratory. I sighed to myself and walked inside. "Demoted to security guard. Once a top rank sniper of JSF. Now just a guard. That's fucking bullshit!" I said to myself. I could just tell this was going to be a long day.

My name is Jason "Downtown" Mitchell. A former elite trooper of the black ops group of JSF (Joint Strike Force). But a little "mishap" at the grenades and explosives training yard and I was demoted to this lousy job. A stupid security guard at some strange experimental science facility! I should be out supporting the frontlines with an AWP! (Author's note: The AWP is the most powerful sniper rifle of Counter Strike for anyone not familiar with guns.) Instead, I'm stuck here with small arms loitering around a building trying to prevent chaos. As if anything ever happens in a place of science. I can still remember the day they demoted me...

"What the fuck are you talking about!? It was an accident!" I yelled at Duke, my superior. "Accident or not," he answered, "You still crippled one of your comrades with what you claim was a 'misthrown' grenade. You should consider yourself lucky. Normally I would just kick a misbehavin' son of a bitch like you off of the force. But since your record does show you as a strong member of the JSF, I'm only demoting you to security at one of our research labs till you prove yourself to be useful again." He was right about the good record part. 56 confirmed headshots all of 'em over 100 meters in distance. "That's bullshit!" I snapped back, "You're demoting me to one of the worst jobs in the world! A measly security guard can hardly be considered a soldier, let alone an elite sniper of my rank!" His only reply was, "That's what you get for messin' with 'nades." I clenched my teeth in rage. My right hand slowly balled into a fist as I made a lunge for his face. In my attempt to punch out his teeth, he simply dodged my strike with a slight duck of his head to the left and returned the attack with a strong punch to my guts followed by a straight kick to my face. I was knocked back several meters onto the floor. "Heh. You sure are a piece of work. Aren't ya?" He said. I was about to get up when I noticed two shadows behind me. I turned my head around and saw two of the other frontline grunts of JSF. "Take this sack a shit away." said Duke, "I don't want to see his face anymore." Each of the soldiers grabbed one of my arms and started to drag me out of the room. "I'm going to fuckin' get you for this! You're going to fuckin' pay!" I yelled back before I was removed from Duke's office.

And that's how I ended up here. I entered the big building and looked around. The sliding doors were a nice touch. The place looked more like a hospital than an experimental science complex. I saw the front desk and the secretary behind it. Nice lookin' chick. Long brown hair, mini skirt. I walked up to her and said, "Hey, I'm the new guy here. Demoted from JSF. Any idea what the hell I'm supposed to do here?" She looked up from her computer and stared at me for a moment. "Oh right!" she replied, "I was told you'd be here today. You're supposed to head to the armory for gear and an assignment. It's just that way." As she pointed out the direction of the armory, she tipped over her coffee cup and it spilled onto the keyboard of the computer she was working on. For a hot girl, she was quite a clutz. "Oh no! Kurama's going to kill me for this!" she said aloud and ran off with the coffee cup and the keyboard which she ripped from the computer. That was a Japanese name she said. What could the Japanese be doing over seas here in USA? (for story purposes, I made it take place of the coast of California) Well, they have brought us a lot of military technologies. That 50. caliber anti-tank rifle was in particular a big success. At any rate, I started in the direction that the girl pointed me in toward what I hoped was the armory.

It didn't take long for me to reach where I was supposed to be. I found a door that had in big letters "Armory" plastered on the front. I looked for a doorknob but there wasn't one on the door. But I did find a keycard scanner. The problem was I didn't have a keycard. I knocked on the door and asked "Anyone in there?"

Dr. Gordon Freeman was reporting in for another day of work at Black Mesa. He walked into the building and picked up his clipboard of notes from the front desk. Oddly, the secretary was missing. He ignored the fact and continued on his way to his locker where his stuff was in. He was walking down a long corridor when he heard slamming ahead of him followed by a string of curses. He thought this was an odd thing to hear and went to investigate.

"Fuckin' hell! Open up!" I yelled after attemping to bust down the door with kicks, punches, and a bodyslam. Nothing was opening up this door except a keycard that I didn't have! I was about to slam into it one more time when I heard someone to my right. "Whoa there! What do you think you're doing?" he said. I turned to my right to see someone who looked like a scientist. Or atleast someone who worked here judging by the keycard. "Do you have a way of opening up this door?" I asked him, "I'm supposed to be in there recieving my security orders. I'm new here." I saw a sense of realization in the guy's face. He said to me, "Oh, so you're the new kid on the security team. I heard about you from my co-workers." Why does everyone here seem to know about me already? "Here," he said, "I'll let you in." He took his keycard and scanned it into the device. The door gave way and allowed us entry. We both walked inside. I looked around a bit. There were plenty of guns stored here. All clean and properly shelved in wooden cases. For a science complex, it was packing quite a large amount of heat. I noticed there was someone inside sitting on a bench. He was cleaning a gun with a rag. The guy with me walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. The guy cleaning the gun reached to his ear and pulled out a set of earphones plugged to an iPod. That would explain why no one heard me outside. They both returned to where I was standing. The one cleaning the gun said to me, "Gee, sorry about that. I was listenin' to my tunes. Couldn't hear you knocking. Well, now that you're here, let's get you suited up. Hey, Gordon," he said to the guy who opened the door for me, "Stick around for a while. This kid's assigned sector is near your lab. You could show him around on your way there. Hey newbie, what was your name again? Jason, right? Follow me." He started down the isles of gun shelves. I followed close behind him.

He made his way down about seven rows before turning down one of the isles. "So what brings you here to Black Mesa?" he asked. So that's what this place was called. "I was demoted here from JSF. I was high ranked too until an unfortunate grenade accident landed me here." I answered. "Damn, that must suck." he replied, "The name's Pete. Pete Hector. I'm in charge of the guns around here. I manage who get's what firearms and I'm also in charge of keeping 'em clean and ready for use." He stopped on one of the smaller shelves. "Ah, here we are." he said. He picked up two guns from the shelf and handed them to me. They were a compact pistol and a mini uzi. "I'm sure these are small arms in comparison to what you used at JSF." Pete said, "But here at Black Mesa, security guards are only assigned small arms for emergencies only. Those assault rifles and SMGs are for sectors that require high levels of clearence and store the most top secret projects. Places that you won't be." I checked the guns for a moment. The uzi, while small, atleast packed a decent punch. 32 bullet clip and a good feeling grip. It wasn't an AWP, but it would do. The pistol was a simple compact pistol designed to fire shots with minor stopping power. This, I could tell, I would avoid using. Pete threw over a couple magazines of ammo. I loaded them both and holstered the spare clips. "Remember," said Pete, "safeties on at all times. Only use those when needed." "Yeah, yeah." I replied while checking that the safeties were on with both guns. I holstered the pistol on my leg holster and the uzi on my belt. We returned to where Gordon was waiting patiently. "Alright. He's all suited up." said Pete, "Jason, you're guarding sector C today. Gordon, show Jason here to his post. Oh, and I almost forgot." He ran to a folder that was sitting on the bench he was on earlier and pulled out a keycard. "This is for you." he said. I took the keycard from him as we left the room.

We started to walk down another set of corridors that soon ended off at an elevator. We got in and Gordon scanned his keycard into another slot next to the floor buttons. To my surprise, a panel folded out of the wall and three more buttons appeared on it. Next to each button read X1, X2, and X3. "What's up with these floors?" I asked. Gordon pushed the X2 and X3 buttons. "These are the high clearence floors. Normally, they all store top secret projects but recently, Black Mesa has recieved a special... I guess you could say 'specimen' to study. All high priority study has been shifted to the X3 level. That's where I'm working. Any related undirect work is being handled on X2 and X1. You've been assigned to sector C of X2. It's an area where some of the review work is done on written studies and reports." Gordon answered. "Wait. Why am I working on a high clearence level of Black Mesa on my first day?" I asked. Gordon took a breath and said, "The thing is... Well, the majority of high ranked security officers have shifted to X3 and not only that, there have been numerous deaths on X3 related to the 'specimen'. That means we're currently shorthanded on all other floors, especially X2 and X1. And as I said, X2 and X1 only hold semi-important information now. Meaning they are currently considered low clearence levels for now" "Deaths?! What the hell are you guys studying on X3?!" I demanded to know. "That is to remain secret. Ah. Here's your floor." said Gordon. The elevator must have dropped down about 15 feet. I got off and said my goodbyes to Gordon. He continued down the elevator to the mysterious X3.

I saw a large painted arrow pointing to the right that read "Sector C". That was my post. I walked down the long empty corridors and hallways. It was quite empty down here. Other than the occasional scientist that crossed my path, no one else was down here. Kinda lonely I must admit. Little did I know that starting now, my life was going to become a whole lot harder.


	2. Escape

Author's note: I forgot to mention in the prologue, I'm basing this fanfic off of the manga not the anime.

**Chapter 1: Escape**

I wandered the halls a little longer without much of anything happening. A few other guards ran into me and asked what I was doing here. All I had to say was "I'm the new guy demoted from JSF." and they would instantly recognize me. Man, how does everyone know about me? Do rumours spread fast around here or something? I didn't bother much with patrolling anymore and decided to take a break. I found an employee lounge and decided to sit down for a smoke. Hopefully, no one would mind. I stepped inside and looked around. Yep. Definitely no one would mind since there wasn't a single person in here to begin with. I sat down in one of the chairs and pulled out the pack of smokes and the lighter that I always kept in my pocket. I lit one of the cigarettes and inhaled deeply on it. Boy, this day is going to be longer than I thought. I went on smoking the cigarette until I heard footsteps behind me. I quickly snuffed out the cigarette and looked to the entrance. "Hey, Jason. Taking a break I see." It was Pete. "What's up?" I replied, "You do patrols here too?" I noticed he had an assault rifle slung over his shoulder. He answered, "I was on patrol alright. On X3 that is. Man, today's a big day for us high clearance guards. The higher ups here need to transport our top secret 'project' to a more secure location. Apparently, this joint ain't enough to hold it. I'm in charge of escort duties so I'm taking a break just before the chopper gets here." "Jesus. What the hell kind of project are you guys working on here? I mean, we're like 20 meters underground here. What place could be more secure to hold this 'project' of yours?" I asked. "Well..." Just then, the room flashed with red light and an alarm sounded off. There was a voice over the intercom "All personnel evacuate the building immediately! All security report to X3 ASAP! Repeat, all..."

(Two minutes earlier...)

"She's still banging on the floor! Can the elevator hold out?" said one of the guards to his partner. Suddenly, his cell phone rang in his shirt pocket. "What's that sound?" his partner asked. "Oh. That's my cell. Who the hell could be calling me at this time?" "What the hell? Do you have any idea how deep underground we are? There's no way that thing would work here!" "Gah! What the-" he yelled as his cell phone was pulled from his hands by what seemed like an invisible force. It landed only a few feet from the "thing" they were escorting. He went to pick it up. "No! You moron!" his partner yelled.

"What the fuck is this all about?" I asked Pete. "Damn! This is seriously bad! Quick! Follow me!" He called back as he ran for the door. I quickly got up and went after him. Judging by his tone of voice, I could tell we were in for trouble. I un-holstered my uzi and switched off the safety. We ran as fast as we could to the closest elevator. Pete punched the call car button and waited with extreme impatience. "Damn it! C'mon!" he yelled. "What the fuckin' hell is going on here?!" I demanded. "Look," he answered, "You don't want to know what you're dealing with here, kid. All you gotta know is don't let this 'thing' get within two meters of you or else you're de-" He was cut off before he could finish his sentence. The doors of the elevator were blown out of the doorway, knocking both of us backwards into the wall behind us. I was thrown against a glass case on the wall as well. "Fuck! Jason, get your gun out! Now!" Pete yelled to me. I shook my head from the impact and was about to reach for my uzi that landed to my left when I was whacked on the head by something. A crowbar had fallen out of the glass case I slammed against and fell on my head. I fell to the ground and began to lose consciousness. The last thing I saw was a figure that appeared in the elevator. A pink haired girl with a steel mask on over her head. She was also naked?! "What the fuck is going on here?!" was my last thought before everything went dark.

"Okay boys, you have your tasks." said Sergeant Morgan Duvall, "Alpha's clearing third floor and moving down to first. Bravo and Charlie are with me. We're securing the underground floors so our forensics guys can run a thorough inspection of the place. Whatever this Black Mesa company is up to ain't good for the world and the government wants them shutdown. Weapons are free, shoot to kill. I want a full lockdown of this place ASAP." "Sir yes sir!" was his troop's response. Sgt. Morgan Duvall, Sgt. Shane Carpenter, Lieutenant Corporal Adrian Teare, and Corporal Francis Peshy of Bravo squad were tasked with the lockdown of Black Mesa. Black Mesa had been arousing suspicion among the CIA so the national security boys decided to shut them down before it was too late. But to avoid suspicion that the government was behind a hostile takeover of a so called "place of science and research", they contracted Mantel Corporation, a privately owned company that lends soldiers for hire to anyone willing to fork up the cash. Mantel has a history surrounded by controversy. Their soldiers are all hopped up on a performance enhancing drug called Nectar. It heightens one's senses, practically makes enemies glow, and improves physical strength tenfold. Nectar looked just like what you think it looks like. Nectar from a beehive. Mantel designed their uniforms to reflect this and has a yellow honeycomb shape on the shoulders as well as a transparent yellow helmet. This drug was what gave Mantel the reputation as the army you don't want to mess with.

The helicopters they were riding in were arriving at their destination. The chopper carrying Alpha landed on the helipad on the roof and dropped off it's passengers. It's crew went instantly to work and stormed down the stairways into the building. The choppers carrying Bravo and Charlie hovered at the level of the second floor. They were supposed to repel down by fast rope and kick through the windows to start the raid.

One of the scientists working at Black Mesa had returned to the first floor to check with the front office about his shift change. To his surprise, the secretary was missing from her post. He shrugged it off and sat down on one of the chairs in the room. There were the sounds of helicopter blades in the distance. "Must be the chopper that's finally going to take that 'thing' away from here. Finally." he thought. Suddenly, the glass shattered from the front windows and before he could turn to see what was going on, a bullet went straight through his skull, killing him instantly.

I finally regained consciousness. Gradually that is. "Aww man. What the hell happened?" I said to the air around me. I looked at my surroundings, I saw the walls plastered with blood. And then I saw Pete's body. Dead, decapitated, and headless. "Good God! What the hell!?" I quickly scrambled to my feet in fear that whatever killed him was still nearby. My eyes darted left and right checking for any threats. All I saw were empty hallways with flickering lights. Whatever killed Pete, it was long gone by now. I saw that my uzi was still where it was last. I picked it up and holstered it. I then looked to Pete's corpse. His assault rifle that he had earlier was still with him. What's left of him that is. I carefully pulled the assault rifle from his body and checked to make sure it was still capable of firing. It looked clean enough aside from the blood splatters. I brushed off all the blood that I could and slung it over my shoulder. I now had to get out of here as soon as possible. Before whatever killed Pete could find me. I checked the elevator. Completely busted. No way I would be getting back to the surface with that. I had to find some other way up. I started to run straight down a random hallway but stopped to look at something at my feet. It was the crowbar that knocked me out earlier. I picked it up. You never know when a crowbar can come in handy. I held onto it and continued on.

"Third floor, clear." "Copy that, Alpha. Boys, move out! Charlie, take east wing, Bravo, we're covering west." They took their positions on the east and west stairwells after clearing the ground floor and leaving nothing but corpses and bullet holes. They hammered down the door and progressed further down into the belly of the labs.

I managed to locate a stairwell but the path to the surface was blocked. The stairs leading up collapsed and the only other path was down. I guess I have no other choice. I took a deep breath and prepared for what was ahead of me in X3. I ran down the stairs and soon came across another high security door with a keycard scanner. I swiped my keycard in it but nothing happened. I looked closely at the scanner to make sure it was working. It must've been short-circuited or something judging by the sparks it was giving off. I knew I had to open this door but how? Then I saw a use for the crowbar. I wedged it in between the wall and door and twisted with all my strength. It slowly gave way and then popped open. I walked into the dark dank floor that was X3. It looked way different than the other floors.

"Bravo, the stairway's blocked with rubble. We're makin' a detour to the first underground level." said Charlie's squad leader. "Roger that." said Duvall, "Regroup with Alpha and hold the upper floors. We'll cover all the lower floors."

X3 looked more like a dungeon than a science lab. It was dark, dirty, and the walls were about as sanitary as a city sewer. "Man, what a dump." I said to myself. I knew I needed to get out of here quick but the creepy environment slowed me down. Thoughts of what were around the corner made me cautious as I walked through the concrete corridors looking left and right constantly and checking over my shoulder every few minutes. I was lucky that I kept cautious and careful as I progressed. "Alright, kill anyone you see. Leave no survivors!" I heard echo ahead of me. "What the hell?" I thought, "Looks like I'm not alone here." I looked around for a hiding spot, ducked behind a corner and peaked out to see who that was. "Remember, you gotta take 'em down before they can pick it up! Boosh!" I heard two of them say. Are these a bunch of frat boys or something? I waited quietly with the assault rifle in my hands in case they spotted me. They continued they're small talk, "Why the hell is Mantel working for the government in the first place? I mean, aren't we a privately owned army?" Mantel corporation? I leaned out a little further and caught a glance at their uniforms. It was definitely Mantel. Their signature uniforms were an obvious sign. I further eavesdropped on their conversation, "That's only because those CIA blokes gave us a huge cash offer for the shutdown of Black Mesa. Don't know why but I'm here for the killing and the cash. Pay me and I'll do anything." There were agreements throughout the group as well as some chuckling. Hmm. Looks like the government is getting involved in this Black Mesa business. That means everything that's been happening so far must be extremely serious if the CIA is going to shut it down. I watched as they walked passed me and continued down the hallway they were marching down. Now was my chance to get out of here. Those Mantel guys must've gotten down here somehow. I'll just slip back up the way they came down. I holstered my assault rifle and walked in the opposite direction they were going. I mastered silent stepping from my days in JSF so it wasn't much trouble staying quiet. I should be able to stay unnoticed as long as I don't- "Oops."

"What was that?" said Duvall. Bravo turned around to see a dark figure in the distance. "Over there! Fire!"

I accidentally stepped on a chipped piece of concrete that cracked under my weight. I heard those Mantel troopers spot me and instantly began to run without staying quiet. A hail of bullets followed after their war cries. I heard the whizz sound of bullets that missed the back of my head by inches. I dove around the next corner I crossed and took cover. "Damn it! so close to escape." I said to myself. Now I had to lose these guys first. I was outnumbered 4 to 1. No way I was fighting them head on. I looked around for something I could use to my advantage. Right behind me was a stairway door blasted open by what appeared to be a C4 blast. So that's how these guys bypassed the keycard scanners. Bingo! My ticket outta here! I pulled out my uzi and blind fired a full clip around the corner before making a break for the stairwell.

"Haha! I'm gonna fill this guy's corpse with a pound's worth of lead!" called Peshy. They continued to fire their weapons full auto at the their unidentified target as they advanced on him. Suddenly, they saw the arm of their target poke out from the corner and return fire with an uzi. The rain of bullets back at them forced them to go prone but a stray bullet struck Teare in the thigh before he could get down. "Gah! Fuck!" yelled Teare, "I'm hit!" "Damnit!" said Duvall, "Shane, give this guy a nectar boost till we can get a paramedic down here." Carpenter got a syringe from the waist holster of his uniform and injected the yellow contents into Teare's leg. "Alpha, I've got a hostile target heading your way. Engage on sight! He's heading up the main stairway! Charlie, get up to the first floor to assist Alpha!" yelled Duvall into his walkie talkie.

As I ran up the stairs I heard the cry of a wounded soldier telling me that I managed to hit one of them. That should slow them down long enough for me to get out of here. I sprinted up several flights of stairs until I was back on the main floor. I felt a rush of relief that I could get out of here but that relief was short lived. I looked through the small window in the door of the stairway just to make sure the coast was clear. No surprise, it wasn't. There were four more of those Mantel troopers just outside. And they were heading my way. I quickly hid to the side of the door. I had to think up a plan...

Alpha received Bravo's message and were prepared to inspect the stairwell for any hostiles. The leader of the squad went first, slowly opening the door and scanning carefully left and right for anyone. Suddenly, a hand grabbed the end of his rifle and yanked him onto the ground followed by the slam of the door behind him.

I instantly made a grab for the trooper's rifle and pulled it away from him while simultaneously slamming the door shut behind him. I took out the ammo clip and tossed the gun away. He was getting up but before he could see who attacked him, I gave him a hard punch right to the helmet. It cracked the visor on his helmet but that punch didn't seem to hurt him. He recovered from the hit and pulled a knife from his belt. He took a swipe at me but I jumped back to dodge it. Another swing and another dodge. He lunged at me trying to stab me in the stomach but I grabbed his wrist, twisted the knife from him, lunged back at him, and stabbed him straight in the back. The knife seemed to puncture some sort of device on his back. It started to spray out a yellow substance as the trooper clutched the sides of his helmet as if he was in great pain before collapsing on the ground in front of me. Well, that worked. I heard banging on the door. His friends were breaking in. The door didn't have a keycard lock and it wasn't long before it went down. The first of them stormed in and was met with a hard flying kick from me. I knocked him onto the floor and rammed past his buddies before they knew what the hell was happening. I continued to run past them into a corridor behind them. I was in the clear, for now. I continued to run down the hall until something stopped me cold. It was yet another squad of Mantel troopers. "Hey, you, freeze!" they yelled before bringing up their guns. In one swift motion, I broke down another door with my body to my left and ran inside. It must've been incredible luck that it was another staircase. Although this one didn't lead to the lower floors so it didn't need a keycard. Looks like now I'm going up. I ran up more stairs to the second floor as the Mantel troopers were hot on my tail. I opened the door to the second floor and ran inside the first room I saw. The door had a window in it so I ducked under it to hide after closing it behind me. "Where'd he go?" I heard outside, "Quick, split up and find him!" There were footsteps in all directions. I was safe again but now I'm stuck in a room with troops outside trying to kill me. I had to find yet another way out of another sticky situation. I looked in front of me and saw a window. I got up, walked to it, and looked down outside. There was nothing but blue ocean. Desperate times called for desperate measures I guess. I was a pretty good swimmer after all. I was about to make a running start to jump through the glass when something caught the corner of my eye. I looked to my right to see a desk with a folder on top of it. It had bright red letters on it that read "Top Secret". I picked it up and read the label on the side. "Diclonius Written Report" was what it read. What the hell was a "Diclonius"? Just then, I heard a yell from outside the door, "He's in here! Get over here now!" Shit! They've found me. I had to book it outta here now or I'm toast. I tucked the folder under my shirt and ran for the window. I shot two bullets into it to shatter the glass before making a clean dive out for the open waters below.

The leader of Charlie had found the enemy and broke down the door that separated them. But once he was inside, it was too late. Their target was jumping out the window into the ocean outside. "No way in hell I'm letting a little bastard like you get away." he said. He ran to the window and aimed his rifle...

I was falling pretty fast but there was plenty of water below me to cushion my fall. "I did it!" I thought to myself, "I managed to escape that deathtrap! I am so aweso-" There was a sudden sharp pain in my right shoulder just before I hit the water. I landed hard and struggled to turn myself face-up in the ocean. There was red in the water all around me. Through the haziness, I saw a single Mantel soldier with his gun out from the window I just jumped from. "Damn it! So close..." I thought before everything turned red and black.

"Ha. Thought you could get away now, didn't you? Ya little rat." said the trooper. He saw the red in the water and assumed his target was dead. His squadmates were just showing up. "Okay squad," he said, "Target's dead. Let's mop up anything left and call in our forensics boys for a runthrough of the ops that went down in this joint."


	3. Recovery and Discovery

Author's note: Starting now, I'm writing all flashbacks in _italic_ (there's going to be quite a few flashbacks from here on to clarify both the story and character histories)

I'm also experimenting with a few format changes to make it easier to read.

**Chapter 2: Recovery and Discovery**

(3 years ago...)

_"Cover us Jason!" yelled Micheal. We were in one hell of a mess. Pinned down in our own bunker with no support coming for atleast an hour in the empty lands of the middle east._

_"I'm on it!" I yelled back as I took position on one of the windows. I aimed my AWP into the distance and spotted one of the terrorists. I centered the crosshairs square in his face and pulled the trigger. The bullet shot straight through his face and taking most of his head with it._

_"Ha! Got one!" I said. "Jason, don't get cocky!" yelled Steve behind me just before a bullet struck my right arm. I dropped my rifle and fell onto my back. "Aah! Shit!" I cried in pain, "Damn stray bullets!" Micheal ran to my side with a field medpack. "Don't worry." he said, "Everything will be fine..."_

I awoke from the dream with blurred eyes. "Ughh. Where the hell am I?" I said to no one. I tried to lift my right arm to wipe the blurriness from my vision but my arm didn't seem to respond. It felt stiff and hard to move. I lifted my left arm instead and wiped my eyes. I tried to focus on where I was as I started to regain some feeling in my body. I could tell I was lying down and that something was wrong with my right arm. That was all I could tell at the moment. My vision started to clear as the world around me gradually faded from a blurry mess to a clear picture. Or atleast, clear enough to see what were my surroundings. I saw a white roof above me. I heard beeping sounds around me too. I looked to my left and saw what appeared to be a heart rate monitor. I then turned to my right and saw my shoulder wrapped in bandages. Was I in a hospital? What happened to me? I tried to recollect my memories of what happened to me recently. I remembered Black Mesa and being demoted from JSF. I remembered the alarm and being chased by those Mantel guys. Then I remembered jumping out the window and getting shot. Right. That's what happened to me. But how did I end up here instead of on the shores of a beach? Or even worse, still drifting in the ocean? "Ah. You're awake." I heard someone say. I tried my best to pull my head up to see who it was.

"You were an inch away from death." said someone who appeared to be a doctor. He wore a white lab coat and had a stethoscope around his neck. He was being followed by who appeared to be a surgeon with scrubs and plastic gloves on. "So how are you feeling?" asked the doctor. I answered with a rugged voice, "Like shit. I can barely move my right arm and my head's in a whirl." "Well that's better than what your condition was a few hours ago." said the surgeon, "I was the one who operated on you. The name's Jake. You were lucky that I was able to take that bullet outta you before you lost too much blood and before the infection spread. A few more minutes and I would've had to take that arm clean off. Amazing how resistant to damage your body is."

I thought about that last part. "Must be the four years of military training under my belt. I've taken worse hits." I said, "By the way, anyone going to explain how the hell I ended up here in the first place?" The doctor spoke up, "You should call that luck as well. Some girl saw your body wash up on the beach and called an ambulance. She even tended to your wounds while the paramedics were arriving. If it wasn't for her, you would be dead now."

Jake, the surgeon, filled in the rest, "I would say she slowed down the bleeding enough for you to survive to the operation room. Boy, was your shoulder ever messed up! It took a whole team atleast three hours to remove the bullet and patch up what was left of your shoulder. Luckily, we managed to repair most of the damage. Just about all your nerves are intact and other than some sluggish response from your right arm and hand, you should be in tip-top shape in no time." I absorbed all this information without much attention as all I really cared about was that I'm still alive right now.

A sudden memory flashed into my head. I had grabbed a folder that I tucked into my shirt before jumping. "Hey, did anyone pick up a folder with some papers in it that I had with me?" I asked.

"I think so. It's quite crinkled from the ocean. I found it tucked under your shirt and stored it in my office until you were awake." answered Jake. "I'll take whatever's left of it." I said. He walked away to retrieve it. "So tell me, doc." I started, "How long will it be before I get out of this place?" "Honestly," he replied, "You're quite a fast healer. I'd say you would be in a good enough condition to leave in a few days. Maybe even late tomorrow." (Author's Note: I know I'm being unrealistic here but it's to stay accurate with the events of the manga) "That's great! Uh. Do you happen to have a cell phone with you?" I asked, "I gotta make a quick call." He reached into his lab coat pocket, pulled out a cell phone and handed it to me. "Thanks." I said as I started to dial. I heard the series of beeps signaling that the phone was ringing. C'mon, pick up!

18 year old Rachel was quietly sitting in her home reading volume 6 of Fullmetal Alchemist when the phone started to ring. She placed a bookmark in her manga and answered the phone.

"Hi, Rachel." I said, "It's Jason. I'm in a tight spot here. I'm down at the hospital after a bullet related matter and-" She interrupted the moment I mentioned the word bullet, "What!?" she gasped, "You were shot!? I thought you were being demoted today to security duty! How the hell did you get shot? Are you hurt?"

Rachel is my anime obsessed, college girlfriend. She has long blonde hair and almost always has on her favourite Shugo Chara T-shirt.

"I'm fine." I tried to say through her panicing voice, "How exactly I got shot I'm not quite willing to say right now but there's something I need you to do. Could you drop by and bring over one of your shirts and a coat. My shirt was torn up after the surgery and I need something to wear home."

"Oh wow!" she said sarcastically, "You even had surgery?! Why don't you just quit the JSF. I mean, you're only 19! You still have plenty of time to turn your life around."

"Sharpshootin's my life." I answered, "It's my life and I'm going to live it. Just do what I told you and meet me in the recovery wing. And please don't bring one of your anime themed shirts!" I pressed the hang-up button and handed the cell phone back to the doc. "Say, doc, could you tell me what time it is?" He looked at this watch and answered, "It's about 7 o'clock right now." Let's see... I arrived at Black Mesa at around noon and it was about an hour later when I jumped out the window. That means I was out for 6 hours! Damn! I wonder if I missed anything important.

(2 hours earlier...)

"Chief, you should consider putting the operation on hold." said an agent, "With the recent attack upon our main research facility, this backup facility is all we have access to. Even if we did manage to catch her, I doubt this complex would be able to keep her captive for long."

Chief Kurama remained focused on the giant monitor in front of him. "It doesn't matter." He said, "As long as she's out in the world, the human race isn't safe! Are you sure that all documents of her existance was destroyed before those grunts invaded the facility?"

The agent replied, "Yes. All records and reports were either destroyed or taken with us when the raid began. However..."

Kurama eyed the agent suspiciously. "What do you mean 'however'?" asked the chief.

"Well..." the agent began, "You see, there was a new recruit today by the name of Jason Mitchell. He was on patrol on X2 when the alarm sounded so he would have been one of the first to encounter Lucy. But, his corpse was never located nor did he report in for the evacuation to this facility. There is an ever so slight chance that he either escaped or was captured by the soldiers. In either case, he could leak valuable information to the outside. Although, I doubt what he knows could be of critical importance since it was his first day. But please take into consideration that he could lead to the fall of this entire project."

The chief pondered on the thought for a moment before answering, "It might be a threat to the operation. But as of right now, we don't have conclusive evidence that he had escaped or was captured. For now, we'll focus on finding Lucy and bringing her back into captivity for as long as we can. Any reports of where she might be?"

Another agent typing into a computer console in front of the giant monitor turned around to answer the chief's question, "We do have an estimation of her location. We got the information from the local weather center. By the rate of the wave, it's most likely she washed up on shore somewhere here." He brought up a map on the monitor which zoomed in on the southern coast of California. A small strip of coastline was outlined in red.

"This is the most likely spot she ended up." continued the agent, "There's always the off chance she found herself somewhere else but this is the only lead we have." Kurama didn't have to think twice about what to do next.

"Send some of our officers to look for her. Tell them to ask the locals and such but keep things calm and quite." he said, "She's naked so people will see her easily. Keep our military reserves on hold for when we find her. We don't want to expose ourselves to the public by a large scale military operation."

"Yes, chief!" was the response he recieved from his agents.

(3 hour earlier...)

"So what have you found out about this Black Mesa place?" asked Morgan Duvall to one of the forensics specialists. After the raid was complete and reinforcements secured Black Mesa from top to bottom, the forensics teams began to dig for clues.

"I must admit, nothing much." said Alexander, one of the team leaders, "We did find a ton of decapitated corpses around here. All of 'em with sliced off lims, torsos, and heads. I've never seen such a gruesome case of mass murder."

Alexander snapped off a pair of rubber gloves. "But I must say that there is one thing expecially suspicious here. Follow me." he said. Morgan and Alexander moved through the search teams and rubble of what remained of Black Mesa to an elevator shaft.

"So what is it you want to show me?" asked Duvall. "This." said Alexander.

He pointed toward a series of bent steel beems that were all snapped out of shape and torn to pieces. "From what we found so far," continued Alexander, "something managed to escape this, I guess you could say, steel holding cell and tear up the labs. It would have to be something with massive strength to break through steel but take a look at this."

Alexander walked through some of the steel bars to the center of the elevator. "We found this stretcher in the midst of the mess. This is what we think was holding the 'thing' that escaped. What's odd is that this stretcher can only hold a 15 to 20 year old person. No way could a mere human bend steel like that." Morgan thought about that for a while.

"So are you saying that this 'thing' that escaped is some sort of 'superhuman'?" Alexander stepped back to where Morgan was and said to him, "Maybe. With the evidence we have now, we can't really tell. For all we know, another group could have helped this person escape with the proper tools to break through that steel cage. But then again, this lab is under suspicion that they've been doing experiments on human guinea pigs. But for now, let's not make exagerated assumptions."

(Present time...)

I layed quietly in the hospital bed after the doc left. It was quite quiet in a hospital recovery wing. You'd think there'd be more than just the rustle and bustle of doctors and surgeons running about but for the most part, all you hear is the beep, beep, beep of all the heart rate monitors. A few minutes later, the surgeon who operated on me returned with some papers in his hands. "Heh. I guess you made the right choice keeping those papers wrapped in plastic, right?" he said to me. I'm guessing he thinks those papers are mine. Well, I guess they were mine now in a way.

"Yeah... Right." I replied. He handed me the papers. "Oh and there's one more thing." he said, "There's a girl named Rachel in the waiting room asking to see you. Your name's Jason right?"

I answered, "Yeah. That's my girlfriend. If you could just bring her here, that would be great."

"Sure. No problem." he said as he walked off to the waiting room.

I looked at the papers he handed me. Most of the folder had broke off from the water damage but the sheets inside were put into individual plastic sheet protectors. I guess I am lucky after all. Not only did I survive the ocean, the documents I "borrowed" from Black Mesa survived as well. I looked around at the people around me and decided not to read the papers here. I would wait till I got home for a private read.

As soon as I looked up from the papers, I was met with the sight of Rachel running towards me at full speed. "Whoa! Hold your horses there!" I yelled at her out of fear that she would jump ontop of me. She was always the hyperactive type of person. She managed to stop suddenly just before reaching the corner of the bed.

"I brought what you wanted." she said as she threw a dark blue shirt and brown coat onto the bed. "Thanks!" was my only reply, "There aren't any logo's or anything on that shirt right?"

She sighed and said, "No there aren't." in an annoyed tone. I picked up the shirt and checked the front and back. She was telling the truth. Nothing more than a plain blue T-shirt. "You're just as stubborn as ever." she said, "You never change do you?"

"It's who I am," I said with a smirk on my face, "I can't help it if I'm like this." She knew she lost this argument just like all the over times she brought up the topic.

She began to walk back the way she came and said, "Well, whatever. I have things I need to study." She was halfway out of the recovery wing when I said to her, "When you say study, you don't mean ready more of your manga do you?" I laughed slightly from that statement.

Rachel instantly froze where she was, snapped around, and yelled back at me, "Just who do you think I am!? I'm going home to study for my courses! That's that!" She turned back and walked away with a grumpy expression on her face.

"She's definitely going to finish some manga she started." I said to myself. There was a window on the far right of my room. I looked out of it to see it was getting dark. I really should get some sleep. But I couldn't shake off this feeling that something important was happening in the world right now...

(Meanwhile...)

"Chief!" yelled out an agent. "What is it?" said chief Kurama while running over to the agent. "We just got confirmation that a naked girl with pink hair had been spotted with a young couple on one of the nearby beaches!" said the agent.

"This is definitely it." said Kurama, "Send all forces we have to search for her. In fact..." He tossed the thought around in his head before stating, "I want S.A.T. on this. Get all of them geared up and dispatch them immediately!"

His secretary spoke up behind him, "Uh... S.A.T., sir?"

"Special Assualt Team. Our spec ops team." answered Kurama.

Meanwhile, at a nearby training facility, S.A.T. was finishing up another day of combat exercises. The top member of S.A.T. was in the combat simulator finishing up what was left of his virtual enemies. "Just amazing!" said one of the lower ranked soldiers, "He hit all his targets in mere seconds!"

"Well of course! It's to be expected from Bandou, leader of S.A.T." said the controller of the virtual simulator. Suddenly, Bandou threw his gun onto the ground. "This sucks!" he yelled out before walking out on the test.

"The test is still running, Bandou!" yelled the test controller, "Get back in there right now!"

"Fuck like I care!" was Bandou's reply, "I've been shooting at fake targets all my life! I didn't join S.A.T. just to play around with simulator toys! Let me shoot real people!"

The test controller sighed and said, "Sometimes I wonder just what the hell is going on inside his head. Just what makes him want to kill live targets?"

Just then, the founder of S.A.T., referred to as "The General" walked in. "Yeah, but that killing spirit in him is what I want in a leader." he said. The S.A.T. member who was with the test controller immediately saluted the General and said, "Good evening, General! What brings you here at this moment, sir?"

Bandou was taking off his simulator gear and walking in on the conversation. "We just recieved a mission for S.A.T." said the General. "We deploy at once."

"Like I give a shit what this is about." said Bandou.

"Oh, I think you'll change your mind about that." said the General, "S.A.T. has been given orders to kill a serial killer that has escaped prison and is on the loose in southern California. Weapons are free on this mission." The General could instantly see the sinister smile build on Bandou's face.

"Kill? Kill?!" was Bandou's response, "Finally! I can kill people legally! This is what I was born to do!" He instantly stormed off to the armoury for his assault gear. "Just what I expected of him." said the General with a smile on his face, "I made the right choice assigning him as leader."

Bandou hand picked his MP5 submachine gun before heading out to the transport copter. "Finally!" he thought in his head, "I get to kill people! My chance to finally show up that Jason kid from JSF! If only he was here this moment! His sniper skills aren't worth shit now!"


End file.
